Pride Goes Before… A Fall

Proverbs 16:18 – Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

I have been reflecting heavily on this verse.  Last week, I sold a dozer to a gentleman who came a few days later with a professional equipment transporter.  As the professional arrived, he parked, tilted his trailer and proceeded to hop up into the driver’s seat of the dozer.  I stood up on the track and asked him if he wanted me to load the cat onto the trailer.  He replied with, “I got this, I’ve driven hundreds of different kinds of equipment.”  I stepped back and told him if he needed anything to let me know.  I watched as he fumbled with the controls trying to figure out what lever does what.  I walked over to show him the lever he was looking for, I pointed and his reply was “ya, ya”.  I stepped back – I felt the Holy Spirit warning me, I started praying for his safety and a safe loading…

He revved the dozer up and proceeded to the very tall heavy equipment trailer where he had trouble getting up due to being in the wrong gear.  He found the right gear and headed up.  Everything looked good, until he needed to stop.  He froze, he panicked and as he was about to hit the back of his truck, at the end of the trailer, he stomped down on the brake, the left brake only.  The dozer immediately obeyed and turned left, right off of the trailer at about five feet high, he braced himself for the fall and 15,000lbs of equipment hit ground creating quite a crash.  I watched his body violently hit the ground, luckily he stayed in the cab or he would have be dead.  I ran over to him, shut off the dozer and asked him if he was ok.  He was dazed, in shock and replied with “the damn thing would come out of gear!”  I didn’t correct him (since he didn’t even try to take it out of gear), he appeared to be in a lot of pain.  I helped him out, stood with the new owner of the dozer (who was quite distraught), and we assessed the situation.  Yep, his collarbone was broken and he was in a lot of pain all over, but, he toughed it out.

After much thought we pulled the dozer back upright, put oil back in it, put all of the panels where they go, etc.  And I prayed it would start, I hit the start button and it started right up.  At this point I had a decision to make, did I now want to drive this dozer and load it onto the trailer after what I just saw?  The new owner came over and asked me if I would.  He asked me if I felt comfortable and my thoughts were clear.  I told him I didn’t want to drive it up the trailer, I was scared after what I just saw, but if I test the dozer out, and it seems to be working ok, and I feel comfortable after that, I would.  I wanted to be honest, not prideful, and I was rattled over it all.  Everything seemed to function, I prayed for God’s safety, and I prayed that others were praying too, as my family was watching at this point.

(The man near the back of the dumptruck was the professional)

The loading went fine.  I wondered, why would God allow this to happen and why did He want me to witness it?  Proverbs 16:18 repeated in my head through this whole event, Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.  Pride is a dangerous thing, we start believing things about ourselves that are just not true, we start saying things to others, about ourselves, that are just not true, and in some cases, our pride can lead to our destruction.  Pride is living is a false reality, which sometimes requires us to prove our false reality.  Hopefully the professional learned this lesson, but his responses don’t give me a lot of hope.  Which means I should keep this man in my prayers.

True humbleness is very rare in people, and typically only occurs in those who truly love and follow Jesus.  After this little lesson, humbleness has come to the forefront of my thinking and my prayers.  I hope to become a much more humble man, I trust God, and I give Him full authority over my life to refine me, and, make me more humble.  And boy, do I have a long way to go, good thing there’s also something else Jesus is big on, grace.  😉